Routine Investigations

Feldman‘s „Routine Investigations“, scored for an ensemble of oboe, trumpet, piano, viola, cello, and double-bass, was created in 1976. The title of Feldman‘s piece suggests several associations, the first of which is with the detective movie-like chord at the opening, perfect for a film noir image of a stranger on a dimly lit street, to be followed up by police „routine investigations“; although of course no particular programme is being described by the piece. The second association is with the compositional procedure which takes this initial harmony, slowly changes the interior notes chromatically, and assigns different notes, pointillistically, to alternating solo instruments and ensemble combinations, thus „investigating“ the makeup of the chord in a specified, „routine“ way. The many and varied combinations, sometimes warmly rich in harmonies, at other times icy and eerie, are always surprising, peculiar and a delight to the ear. Many of the notes are repeated in a slowly pulsing manner with crescendo-decrescendo „swells“, an unusual gesture in Feldman‘s music, but one also suggesting mysterious goings-on. (This is like the best of movie soundtrack composers who can by one chord or timbre immediately establish the mood and background of what is to be unfolded on the screen.) Often in his early works or in the later small ensemble pieces, Feldman will radically change the manner of playing or will introduce some other new element toward the end, such as all sustaining tones instead of all short tones in the „Piece for Violin and Piano“ (1950), or the pianist making rapping sounds on the body of the piano at the end of the „Variations“ (1951). In „Routine Investigations“ about 1 1/2 minutes before the end of the piece, Feldman makes an obsessive, nervous looping rhythmic pattern in duples and on-rushing triplets from the center three chromatic notes of the inner voice. This pattern is given first to the muted trumpet, oboe, and viola, and then is taken over by the piano as the other instruments pulse and swell on the sustained „mystery“ chord. Suddenly, everything just vanishes.